Methods for household waste composition studies

The question is how to conduct household waste composition studies. The review is divided into three parts: overview of known methods, sampling theory, and the waste components. Twenty methods are listed and commented on. There is no adopted, working international standard. In accordance with Pierre Gy’s Theory of Sampling, the seven types of sampling errors, when collecting and splitting solid samples, are described and commented on in relation to sampling of household solid waste. It is concluded that the most crucial choices in household waste composition studies are: to divide the investigation into relevant number and types of strata; to decide the required sample size and number of samples; to choose the sampling location, i.e., sampling at household level or sampling from loads of waste collection vehicles; and to choose the type and number of waste component categories to be investigated. Various classifications of household waste components used in composition studies are listed and discussed. Difficulties and weaknesses of the reviewed methods are discussed and concluded in suggested questions for further research.